Saturday morning 12:51am as life catches up with me. Had a nice ride Thursday, and then Friday my son and I rode down to the train station, took CalTrain to San Jose, then rode to the Tour of California Time Trial course. The original plan was to ride up the gentler back side, but due to an error reading a map I missed the turn and ended up climbing Metcalf itself. Let me tell you it’s steep! Those guys were dying out there.
More soon- –MIke–
This makes it worth getting up earlier than you would otherwise have to!
Last night Kevin, Becky and I were riding home from the shop after work, and I noticed it was 7:33pm when we left, exactly 12 hours prior to when Kevin and I leave for the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride. And, sure enough, I check the Garmin and we left at 7:33am. We made better time than normal getting to the start though, since we spotted Andrew from the RC shop just ahead of us, and Kevin of course had to run him down.
Marcus, Kevin, George, Jan, Chris(? a friend of Karl’s who works with him at REI), the other Kevin, Todd… who else? Ah, Ludo joined is for a bit, first time out for him in many months. Brandon had gotten an earlier start and was riding as fast as he could, ahead of us, trying to not get caught until late in the ride. What he didn’t know was that we were riding at a civilized pace (again), and held up a bit first when I waited up for Kevin (son, not the pilot) who wanted to shed his leg warmers at the park entrance up Kings, and then later for George when he tossed his chain.
Kevin (son, not the pilot) had wanted to get in some extra miles by dropping down to LaHonda and heading back up West Alpine, but found no takers today. I couldn’t go with him because it would add over an hour to the ride and not get me back in time for work. Darn, would have been nice! As it was we ran about 11 minutes late at the finish, never really getting into that “fast” groove this morning.
The LaHonda Duck Pond, complete with the basics. Ducks, ducklings & kids!
There are only so many ways you can try and combine our local roads and come up with something different after 40+ years, but I was determined to try. You can see what I came up with below; start by climbing 84 from Woodside, not Kings or Old LaHonda, and then head north on Skyline, not South. Descend Tunitas instead of climbing it, then south on 1 to Stage, then the more-typical run into Pescadero, up & over Haskins, and return via 84 & West Old LaHonda. I figured it would be challenging, and I had figured correctly, especially going alone (Kevin’s still having kidney pain issues).
Warm? Yes, at least until San Gregorio, which was actually fogged in! The run south on Stage was interesting in that you had the sun on one side, fog on the other, a not unpleasant combination, just a bit strange.
I did “goof off” a bit on West Old LaHonda, taking more photos than usual, as seen below-
Widescreen (iPhone Panorama) shot of West Old LaHonda
2013 Trek Domane
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Why we ride
It was Tuesday that George got on my case about some of my Strava ride descriptions, basically focusing on the pain and challenges, making it not sound like fun. And that hit me, because my job, seriously, is to make cycling seem like something people want to do, not have to. So today I set out to “have fun” even though it was a Thursday, which meant the tougher route to Skyline, up through the park. It worked! It’s not as if I was very fast heading up the hill (I wasn’t), but that didn’t matter. I was out on a bike, riding with friends, and looking for the little things that make each ride over roads I’ve ridden hundreds of times, a bit different.
Everyone present and accounted for! From left to right, Kevin J, George, Karen, Kevin K, Karl, Eric, Marcus, Andrew, Chris, and JR far right, riding in from the men’s room.
The group stayed together on the climb up Kings, with the exception of Kevin J, who’d had to take a brief stop for relief near Huddart, and I rode a bit behind the main group so I could keep an eye on him and make sure he was doing OK. We came across Brandon, who’d left a few minutes earlier than us, just past the park; he had intentions of trying to hold our pace for a while, but that’s tough to do when you’re carrying a backpack with work clothes on a bike that’s a good deal heavier than the rest of us were riding.
Everyone stayed together the rest of the ride, at a good but not deadly pace. The sort of thing that I could really get used to. And I can especially get used to completely dry roads on descents! No worries about sliding on tar stripes, nor holding back impatient cars behind. Life is good on days like today. There will be many more.
Riders in the rain
Yesterday seemed warmer than expected; the first day of the big cool-down yet it was still pretty darned warm. And with that, really busy at the shop. I can live with that! But last night… talk about what the wind blew in. Let’s get something out in the open. I don’t like wind. It’s unsettling. Keeps me from sleeping ‘cuz there’s so much stuff (pollen) in the air, makes me anxious, that sort of thing. So I wake up with about 3 hours sleep this morning for an “early” ride with Kevin because he’s got a 2pm on-line gaming gig…
But that “early” ride (supposed to leave at 8am) turned into 9am when it turns out that the breakfast rolls needed half an hour in the oven, and that tossed the original idea, riding to the coast via Pescadero, out the window. Sigh. In the end that was probably best, since Kevin’s still in a lot of pain from his kidney stent.
Up the good old reliable Old LaHonda Road to Skyline at a, for Kevin, leisurely 25 minute pace. He wanted to go faster at the start, but towards the end he was hurting and slowing down. Let me be clear; I have no problem adapting to a slower pace. 
Down the other side and the rain hit. Not much, not drenching, but enough that I gave the light windbreaker I’d brought to Kevin to stay warm (Dad’s do things like that) and reminded him that next time, he needed to get a bit smarter on seriously-cloudy days and carry one himself. It was at the base of West Old LaHonda that we came across the young woman and her friend in the photo, shivering in the wet & relative-cold. No leg warmers. If you don’t have leg warmers in your cycling closet, get them!
Thankfully it stopped raining shortly and even warmed up for the rest of the ride. The run to the coast was nicer than expected, with an unexpected tailwind quite a bit of the time. After a short stop for a cookie for Kevin at San Gregorio, it was up Stage Road to the coast, again with a tailwind, and really wishing this was a day we were in good shape and going for time because we’d have been pushed up the hill!
The real missed opportunity came on the downhill run to Tunitas on highway one. If I’d thought about it, I would have pushed over the top and gotten some speed on the way down, because way too late I noticed I was doing 43mph and accelerating… but almost at the bottom. I tucked in to see what I could do and watched my speed… 47… 48…49… 49.2, 49.5, 49.6, 49.7, 49.8… c’mon, you can do it… and that’s all she wrote. Two tenths of a mile per hour short of 50. I could have easily gone 55 or better had I tried sooner!
With all the relatively-favorable winds we expected Tunitas to be nasty for the first few miles before the climb, but surprisingly that still wasn’t the case. One thing I know for sure; this would have been a terrible day for a ride south to Santa Cruz!
Kevin passing the “Bridge of Death” on Tunitas
One of the classic Tunitas switchbacks
The climb up Tunitas wasn’t pretty (actually, it was very pretty; it always is!), but we got to the part where it levels off sooner than expected. Somehow we missed the “false” summit that you misread on the climb, thinking you’re closer to the top than you really are. That’s the kind of surprise I like.
In the end we got home a bit earlier than expected, so Kevin got to play his role in the game (which his team lost, which should be an indication he should spend more time cycling and less time in on-line games). Just 44 miles and about 4500ft of climbing, but the future looks good.
First ride for Kevin in two weeks; maybe, just maybe, he’s turning the corner on the pain from his latest kidney procedure. Of course despite my warnings that he should take it easy he had to try and ride with Marcus up Kings and, what do you know, ends up with something like a pulled muscle in the groin area sort of thing. We ended up not doing the West Old LaHonda loop, shortening the ride by about 6 miles, but the good news is that he can ride and went through the day without the continuous pain that’s been his partner for a while. This is good!
This is not what your chain should look like!
Two weeks in a row confirms it; a tough ride on Sunday, with heat being the “x” factor that pushes things over the edge, means Tuesday’s ride doesn’t go so great. Thinking about it and talking it over with others, I’m pretty sure the solution is to get in an easy ride on Monday, one that doesn’t include nasty climbs or working very hard, just an easy spin. Is that even possible in today’s post-Strava world, where every aspect of your cycling is recorded and compared to prior versions of yourself (and others)?
“Strongman” Kevin (pilot) during a brief break in the action while George’s flat is repaired
Karl, Karen, Kevin (pilot), Joe, Marcus, George and I’m trying to remember who cut the ride a bit short and headed back down 84 while the rest of us did the west-side Old LaHonda loop? JR was there at the beginning but he was sticking to his regimen of doing intervals, not riding for time, so we saw him for just a short while.
Nice and warm so I was really hoping my lungs would do well today, but didn’t matter, my legs felt like mud. Got to the top in just under 30 minutes, a good two minutes slower than last week, and felt like twice the effort. I never really felt like I was “there” until almost the end of the ride, when I decided to go for and take the final sprint, and shortly thereafter thought this would be a good day to ride to Santa Cruz if not for that work thing that gets in the way. We’ll see what happens next week when I squeeze in that extra Monday ride to keep things loose.
This would be more artistic if the view to the left was a bit more stylish
Different crop, same photo. Try enough times maybe something will come out.
Later on it was time to refuel, so stopped by Peets on the way to work. They’re not super bicycle friendly; no bike rack outside, and nothing to plug the whole in your coffee cup so it doesn’t splash out on you on your way to work. The barista suggested using a second cap and turning it so the hole didn’t line up, and this did in fact work, but only after taking a couple of minutes working to snap the second cap over the first one without collapsing the cup. Why couldn’t she have volunteered a piece of tape to cover the whole? I’ll ask next time.